This one is a beauty:
http://www.jackmack.com/
It was 1981 and we were playing every Thursday night at the Club Lingerie on Sunset Blvd in Hollywood. Even though by law the place held 325 people, we packed it with 900 hot sweaty bodies all of which were grooving to the great Soul Music we were putting down.
It's strange how unfortunate circumstances can turn out to be fortunate. Andrew, our guitarist was in a car accident on Dec 31, 1981, breaking 7 ribs in half. A good friend of the band, Josh Leo was called in to sub while Andrew was recovering. As it turned out Josh was playing on Glenn Frey's solo record at the time so one night he brought Glenn down to the club to check out the band. Most people thought of Glenn as a country rocker but he was deeply rooted in Soul music having grown up in Detroit. Glenn loved the band and decided instantaneously that he wanted to produce a record on us. Soon after, he called a lunch meeting with his manager, Irving Azoff. Glenn basically, over a salad, told Irving to sign us and so Irving said yes and put us on his Full Moon /Warner Bros. label. Within one week we were at Wilder Bros Recording Studios in Century City making our first album, Cardiac Party which we released in 1982. http://tinyurl.com/zhxl78e. The record contract had not even been drawn up yet but with Glenn, a handshake was good enough. Glenn even paid for all of it out of his own pocket until the record label money kicked in. He brought in his Eagle crew in, Norton, Tommy Nixon and Alan Blazek, to be there every day and made sure the studio was stocked with drink and food and anything else we needed.
Every day we would start recording at exactly 1pm. He would say, "1 for 2", meaning get there at 1 and start playing at 2. We had written 10 original songs and since we had been performing them every Thursday night, it wasn't a matter of learning them, It was more about getting the right performance. Glenn always wanted a first take on each song so he wouldn't let us play the songs more then once. After each take we would go out back and shoot hoops or eat or something before attempting another take.
One day our trumpet player John Berry (JB), was recording a track with our Heart Attack horns and his horn started falling apart, so Glenn, knowing we were broke musicians, offered to buy him a new one. When JB came in the next day with a beautiful new trumpet Glenn realized the rest of us might feel resentment, so Glenn announced that we should each go out and buy an instrument of our choosing and he would pay for it. I found a 1959 Fender Stratocaster which to this day is still my favorite guitar. He really was very generous and had a big heart.
Glenn told us. "every song should have a hero, someone to route for". We still think about that when we write and will never forget those 6 weeks in the studio with Glenn. We learned so much from him. Glenn was generous, and gave us a shot when no one else would. He left the world too soon. He will always be in our memories and his legacy lives on in his timeless, great songs
Last edited by UndertheWire; 01-25-2016 at 07:05 PM.
I have been trying to think of something to say, but I think Joe said it best. There are no words. We were lucky to have lived in a time that we were able to enjoy his music while he was here. Some of us were lucky enough to see him in concert. Still others were extremely lucky and got to actually meet him. We all have our memories and we will always have his music. And thanks to Nancy, we have each other to help us get through this together.
it is hard to believe that tomorrow it has been a week